Conventionally, there is known a contact member in which a layer in which metal oxide particles are dispersed in a base material made of a metallic material is provided on a surface of the layer in order to improve sliding, abrasion resistance, and arc-resistance. Generally the layer in which the metal oxide particles are dispersed is formed by sintering.
In recent years, there is a demand for further improvement of the arc-resistance in such contact members. In order to further improve the arc-resistance, it is conceivable to increase a content of the metal oxide particles in the layer in which the metal oxide particles are dispersed. However, for the layer in which the metal oxide particles are dispersed by sintering, hardness of the layer is increased and workability is degraded when the content of the metal oxide particle in the layer is increased. For this reason, the contact member including the layer in which the metal oxide particles are dispersed at a certain rate or more can hardly be provided in an arbitrary shape.
Consequently, a method of forming the layer in which the metal oxide particles are dispersed by not the sintering but plating has been proposed. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a plating material in which a surface plating layer containing one or more kinds of metal oxide particles selected from a group consisting of silicon oxide, aluminum oxide, tin oxide, and zinc oxide is formed. Patent Document 2 discloses a method for producing a contact material in which one or more kinds of metal oxides selected from bismuth oxide, cadmium oxide, zinc oxide, tellurium oxide, tin oxide, indium oxide, copper oxide, and manganese oxide are dispersed in a plating solution to form a plating film by electrolytic plating.